Hey All,

  Just want to say what an awesome site this is!! I think I must have downloaded over 300 songs. I know I'll be very busy for a loooong time. With that said, what would be the recommendation for a true beginner to start out on Rocksmith? I know about 4-5 chords fairly well. I haven't really had a lot of time to practice and play since I got my guitar and RS last x-mas. I plan to change that soon. So, for a beginner do you recommend that I start playing rhythm to start and get the basics down, or can I still learn enough if I choose Lead? I'm finding the lack of a guided system to be a bit frustrating. I think I would learn better with some structure and laid out lesson plans rather than just going into several directions all at once. I find some of the recommendations that RS tells me to do a bit confusing with no explanation on how to do them. I wish Ubisoft had made a detailed guide on how to do some things in this game and put it in the box. It would be helpful to have had a legend key explaining what some of the symbols mean when playing a song too. I'm starting to wonder if I should invest in a site like Guitartricks or Jamplay to get some lessons outside of RS and then when I get some fundamentals down, come back and play around with the game? Just curious what the opinions of some of you might be?

First off go through the lessons in RS at least once even you don't get all of them at 100%.

Then just practice on official songs and by letting DD do his work to slowly ramp up the difficulty instead of trying to climb a giant fucking wall all at once.

 

The recommandations are not exactly the best thing to follow especcially when you have custom since RS doesn't handle the customs well difficulty wise since RS rely on the DD to evaluate difficulty.

 

I think the most important thing is to be motivated and play constantly (that doesn't mean that you should play a lot per day/week).

Cool, good advice, thanks! Yeah, the recommendations suck. It told me to practice pentatonic scales in session mode...I was like, WTF is a pentatonic scale?? I had to Google it to find out and watch some lessons on how to play it. Might have been nice if there was an actual lesson on it in game(maybe there is and I just haven't seen it yet?). So, in your honest opinion, you think I can really learn all I need from RS? I read some reviews that criticized that RS doesn't do a great job with making sure you're learning proper techniques and can lead to sloppy habits down the line? I just don't want to sabotage myself in the future by having poor techniques.

As Firekorn said, just try to complete all of the lessons. It will teach you all of techniques that you should expect the game to throw at you. Also, try to stick to songs that are your skill level. By the way, there is nothing wrong with switching between Lead and Rhythm arrangements, some songs I do lead, some I do rhythm. Just don't forget about Riff Repeater.

I did learn how to play guitar with RS only though i had a strong musical background. RS isn't made to make you learn music theory which isn't necessary to play guitar overall.

 

So yes RS can be the only tool you use to learn how to play guitar, but that doesn't mean it will work this way for you, if you feel that you need music theory RS isn't the place to learn it. You need to find by yourself the way you'll learn the best, if you don't feel that RS help you it's simply not made for you and other site/tool would be better.

No, you can't learn "all" you need to know about playing guitar from RS.  But it provides a good foundation.  And it will teach you how to play songs.  Once you get comfortable playing you should supplement RS with other methods of learning (Youtube videos, etc) and learning how to play in your own style (or a style you'd like to emulate).  That's the part that RS can't really teach you.

 

As for the pentatonic scale, you should definitely practice that in session mode (or outside of RS).  In Session Mode when you set the scale to Pentatonic it will show you all of the notes within that scale (or any scale you choose) on the fretboard at the bottom of the screen.  Then you're free to jam or play whatever you like.  When you're just beginning, you should play the scale notes repeatedly until you can memorize the pattern.  I play Session mode with the different scales for 5 minutes or so every time I play RS just to warm up and stretch out my fingers.

 

The different scales are the foundations for most musical genres and are key to learning good fills and solos.

Great, thanks everyone for the advice. i will take it to heart. Yes, at some point I will probably be interested in learning more music theory, particularly how to play the Blues genre more. I love most any music, but Blues is my favorite and there isn't a whole lot of it in RS. I plan to try to get a minimum of an hour of practice in each day so hopefully I will be able to use session mode without sucking in the near future. I'll make sure to keep coming back here for advice and news. Thanks!

 

-Russ

That's the best thing about Session Mode.  You can never suck.  It's a great place to just jam along by yourself, or with the "bands" you can set up.

 

I personally don't play with any of the band instruments.  I prefer to just use the metronome and play by myself.

 

The most important thing to realize with Session Mode (which isn't laid out in any in-game instructions) is that you can't use it to play songs.  If you try and play riffs or chords from songs, it will sound horrible because the band doesn't know what you're trying to play.  They play their pre-defined parts but can't respond accurately to song structure.

 

 

I also wanted to add, in addition to the other great advice posted above, it's (to me anyway) important to supplement playing RS with practicing outside of the game on your own.  The game can become a crutch in a lot of ways, making you dependant on coloured strings, having the notes always showing on the screen instead of memorizing the progressions, and by hiding the sound of your own playing underneath the music in the game.

Good advice, Wepeel! I will make sure to use it as a tool, but not my only method of learning. I love the fact that the internet has opened up so many ways to learn stuff. I just wish this had been around when I was 16 years old so I could have started then.

Me too.  I got my first guitar on my 16th birthday and gave up about 3 months later.  I couldn't afford lessons and trying to learn on my own was just too overwhelming at the time.  There was no YouTube and the internet wasn't the internet we know today.

 

 

If you're ever looking for some good YouTube lessons, I like these two channels:

 

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJgRMHrtQpnhKHdsGiFQRyQ

https://www.youtube.com/user/JustinSandercoeSongs/videos

 

Justin Sandercoe (the second link) is a bit goofy sometimes, but he does a good job making songs accessible to all levels of difficulty.

Oh, yeah! I have them both book marked along with Erich Andreas(yourguitarsage.com). I can't say I've watched a whole lot of their lessons yet, but I liked what I saw so far.

Hey All,

  Just want to say what an awesome site this is!! I think I must have downloaded over 300 songs. I know I'll be very busy for a loooong time. With that said, what would be the recommendation for a true beginner to start out on Rocksmith? I know about 4-5 chords fairly well. I haven't really had a lot of time to practice and play since I got my guitar and RS last x-mas. I plan to change that soon. So, for a beginner do you recommend that I start playing rhythm to start and get the basics down, or can I still learn enough if I choose Lead? I'm finding the lack of a guided system to be a bit frustrating. I think I would learn better with some structure and laid out lesson plans rather than just going into several directions all at once. I find some of the recommendations that RS tells me to do a bit confusing with no explanation on how to do them. I wish Ubisoft had made a detailed guide on how to do some things in this game and put it in the box. It would be helpful to have had a legend key explaining what some of the symbols mean when playing a song too. I'm starting to wonder if I should invest in a site like Guitartricks or Jamplay to get some lessons outside of RS and then when I get some fundamentals down, come back and play around with the game? Just curious what the opinions of some of you might be?

I hope is not too late to post my recommendation. Actually you should must playing whatever you feel must like to beging with.Lessons not matter if you are following RS a online site or even with a techer can be sooo boring and sooo frustrating most times for the complete beginners.Same advice for every newbie following this post. I strongly recommend  you to play the easiest songs you really like from RS and CDLC. Try with single riffs slowly and the next and the next until you fairly domminate them.Following schedules could work for some but in most cases seems that would be the worst thing to do.The point is to keep playing whatever your heart says and let not monotony consume you. Even with that I lost motivation to play everynow and then I couldn't imagine following schedules or dumb lessons in some order, is not like you musn't go for lessons but to try them when you have some experience playing with to decrease the tedium when really focusing on them. The first reason to not learning guitar is the lack of motivation.RS can't really motivate you forever so it depends most on ppl what really keeps them motivated.It's up to you to find out.And finally never try score attack.It sucks.

Since you mentioned the lack of explanation for the symbols:

It's always a good idea to open the steam overlay (if you are on pc) and check this guide for the symbols:

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=209561339

If you favourite this one, I think it will always show in the overlay.

 

Another point:

The Guitarcade games have not yet been mentioned, but they are definitely worth checking out. In my first months with Rocksmith I have played them a lot, e.g. the Saloon and Ducks Redux for warming up and getting used to handling the pick.

I recommend playing each game at least once. Then you will find out that there are two(!) games that include learning pentatonics. You will be overwhelmed by some games at first, but be sure to check back a couple of weeks later. Chances are that you will suprise yourself with the progress you've made in the meantime ;-)

 

Oh, and in contrast to hellohello I like Score Attack. It will put a lot of pressure on you (it does a loud, frustrating sound evertime you miss a note) but I think it may help to, well, play under pressure. As well as force yourself to repeat over and over again to get the best score :-)

I was (and probably still am) a beginner. I started with Lead because that's what I want to play :) I think either way you progress, it depends on what u want to play.

Go with whatever you want to play in the end. Most Lead songs, easier ones doubly so, are almost indistinguishable from their Rhythm counterparts.

 

And neither path is 'easier' in the end - the fact that you'll need elements of both notwithstanding, advanced Rhythm playing is as involved as advanced Lead playing, just in a different way and requiring different focus.

All very good points. I plan to get a Fretlight guitar for X-mas this year. I plan to use that for learning chords, scales, etc. and then play RS for learning songs and fun. I think I will go back to the Lead path, because that is ultimately what I want to play. Now, if I can just find some time to play between the new job and moving this month...argh!  :wacko: